DEBT CEILING RAISED, CONGRESS RUSHES TO RECESS

WASHINGTON -- Congress finally headed for home early Saturday after passing legislation that will raise the national debt ceiling and allow the government to continue borrowing money while the lawmakers enjoy a three-week summer holiday.

That action completed an exhausting day on Capitol Hill in which the Senate adopted a tough set of sanctions against the government of South Africa and the House approve a measure that cuts deeply into President Reagan's proposal for the military budget.

The Senate also ratified several diplomatic nominations that had been sidetracked by Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., who accused the appointees of not carrying out the administration's conservative foreign policy. Those included Morton I. Abramowitz as assistant secretary of state and Frank G. Wisner as ambassdor to Egypt.

When they return in September, the legislators will be facing a crowded agenda, which is expected to bring another round of fighting over the nation's budget priorities. With control of the Senate at stake in the November elections, Congress hopes to complete its work for the year in early October and then hit the campaign trail, but a post-election, lame-duck session seems increasingly likely.

One major problem will be the bill establishing and extending military programs passed by the House, which sets a ceiling of about $287 billion for the fiscal year 1987. That is $8 billion below the Senate figure and $33 billion below the president's request. A South African sanctions bill approved by the Senate will also have to be reconciled with an even tougher House bill.

Other outstanding issues include a major trade bill that has passed the House, but is stalled in the Senate, and a revision of the immigration laws that has cleared the Senate, but is moving slowly in the House.

Since the Treasury would run out of borrowing authority in early September, Congress could not leave town without resolving the issue. A bill that would raise the debt ceiling for a year is now before a House-Senate conference, but that measure could not be completed this week, so congressional leaders pushed for a short-term extension that would carry through the recess.

That plan, however, ran into opposition from sponsors of a budget- balancing law adopted by Congress last year and declared partly unconstitutional by the Supreme Court earlier this summer. The sponsors argued that Congress had to fix the constitutional flaw in the measure before the summer recess, and they wanted to attach their amendment to the bill on the temporary debt ceiling.

Democratic leaders in the House, however, adamantly opposed using the debt ceiling to resolve the constitutional problem, and a parliamentary wrestling match between the two houses consumed all of Friday night and part of Saturday morning, as impatient and irritated lawmakers saw travel schedules and vacation plans begin to slip by.